Kimberly A. Simpson

Ms. Kim Simpson joined the JPL Office of the Chief Engineer as the NESC Chief Engineer in 2017.  She has over 30 years of systems engineering and program management experience supporting a number of Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) programs and projects including Planetary Radar, Galileo, Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, Stardust, Genesis, the Space Interferometry Mission, Exploration Flight Test 1 and Exploration Mission 1.  Ms. Simpson has also served as the NESC Deputy for Software and the Systems Engineering Technical Discipline Team Verification and Validation co-lead.

Ms. Simpson specializes in the application of model based systems engineering (MBSE) to conduct independent NESC assessments and to perform systems engineering, integration, verification and validation of complex System of Systems (SoS) architectures.  Through the use of MBSE she has demonstrated an increase in systems engineering efficiency and enforced systems engineering rigor amongst programs and projects which has successfully convinced key stakeholders of its benefits.

Ms. Simpson received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and is the recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Achievement and Systems Engineering Technical Excellence Awards, the NESC Leadership Award, Orion Program Exceptionally Meritorious Service Award, JPL’s Technical Excellence Award and multiple Group Achievement Awards.